Glitter is Litter: 60+ music festivals have just banned glitter

Turns out, despite its status as a festival fashion stalwart, glitter is actually really bad for the environment.

Plastic pollution has become a burning issue in recent months. Like those plastic microbeads that have been banned from your shower gel, glitter is a microplastic. Worse, it’s often coated with metal.

Like microbeads, glitter tends to end up in our rivers and oceans, usually following showering or washing clothes.

It doesn’t biodegrade either, so can pollute the soil of a festival site for decades, or until it gets eaten by wildlife or livestock, which again is far from ideal.

Festivals love to cite their eco-credentials, so this year, expect to see plastic glitter prohibited from many festivals across the country. Several festivals have already explicitly banned glitter, some going back as early as 2016.

Joining them are the 61 festivals that make up the Association of Independent Festivals, or AIF. The association confirmed this week that all of its members have signed a pledge to ban glitter from their events.

Thankfully, a ‘
BioGlitter‘ alternative is being pushed, made from wood fibres. Festivals including Shambala that
have prohibited traditional glitter this year have encouraged their traders to stock this eco-friendly alternative.

The #DrasticOnPlastic pledge signed by 61 independent festivals, including Shambala and Boomtown, requires festivals to become totally free of single-use plastics by 2021. This not only includes traditional glitter, but plastic cups, straws, food trays, wet wipes, and even cable ties used in building the festival site!

Catch our full list of festivals banning glitter below.

UK festivals banning plastic glitter

Bestival

Bestival is one of
60+ festivals that have signed the ‘Drastic on Plastic’ pledge to ban all single-use plastic. Organiser Rob Da Bank told press:

“Unless you’ve been living on the moon, you’ll know the plastic problem is not going away. I’m very proud that the organisation we started with five members 10 years ago now boasts over 60 who have all signed up to eradicate single use plastic in the next couple of years. This is exactly the sort of work the AIF [Association of Independent Festivals] needs to be doing – leading the global charge against essentially unnecessary plastic at all our festivals.”

Bestival takes place at Dorset’s Lulworth Estate during the first weekend of August.

Green Gathering

Unsurprisingly, Green Gathering have been somewhat leading the way on this. Not only has plastic glitter been banned since 2016, Green Gathering are so green that they’re advising against biodegradable glitter this year!

They’re not keen on so-called BioGlitter until further research has confirmed the impact of biodegradable glitter on fields and watercourses, and until ethical sourcing has been proven.

Shambala confirmed in a blog post last week that traditional glitter would be banned from this year’s event. It will not be available anywhere on site.

Ticket holders will not be stopped from bringing glitter into the event, but are strongly encouraged to use
BioGlitter or other alternatives.

Pangaea

Pangaea isn’t your typical festival, rather it’s an annual one-day event hosted by the University of Manchester Students Union.

Regardless, they’re members of the Association of Independent Festivals, and as such, have signed the Drastic on
Plastic pledge and therefore will be banning all single-use plastic, including glitter, from Pangea.

Green Man

Welsh festival Green Man, held in the stunning Brecon Beacons, in an independent festival renowned for their non-corporate, ethical approach.

They’re not members of the
AIF, but have taken their own steps to cut back on the use of non-essential plastics.

Green Man organisers have told fans: “Festival goers love glitter, however we are now all aware of the damage micro-plastics do the the environment and the oceans. This year all our traders and face painters will be using biodegradable glitter made from plant cellulose and metallised aluminium. We are also asking all festival goers to only bring biodegradable glitter”

WeAreFSTVL

WeAreFSTVL hasn’t made any official announcement to the press about banning glitter, or plastic, on a wider basis. However, the Evening Standard reported that they have banned traders from selling traditional glitter on site this year. It’ll be that
BioGlitter stuff only.

WeAreFSTVL takes place early in the festival calendar, towards the end of May in Outer London. This year’s event features massive acts such as Eric Prydz, Andy C, Gorgon City and Seth Troxler.

Kendal Calling

Lake District favourite Kendal Calling is another independent festival that has signed the Drastic on
Plastic pledge, meaning plastic straws will be banned from the site this summer. This will be followed by all single-use plastic including glitter within three years.

This year’s Kendal Calling features a headline set from The Libertines, alongside Run DMC and Catfish & The Bottlemen.

Tramlines

Sheffield’s Tramlines festival is moving to a brand new, massive arena in the city’s Hillsborough Park. Weekend Tier 6 tickets are just £79, and this years line-up features headline sets from Stereophonics, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, and Craig David.

Jake Bugg and Clean Bandit are set to headline the second stage, and this year Tramlines have added a brand new comedy stage to supplement it’s four music stages. Under 15 minutes from Sheffield City Centre by tram, the Tramlines party continues into the early hours of the morning at an array of city centre venues.

Tramlines are a member of the Association of Independent Festivals, and as such, are one of 61 festivals pledged to abolish all single-use plastic, including glitter, within three years.

Festival director Sarah Nulty told TheFestivals.UK: “The festival industry has been doing loads in the way of sustainability and I think Tramlines needs to make sure it is too. We want to start the process this year with removing plastic, but need to work with our traders etc to make sure it’s across the site. Hopefully we can get there before 2021, but there is a UK wide campaign for festivals to try and hit that target which we are part of.”

3 Wishes Fairy Festival

Image credit: Lee Searle Photography

Hailed by the BBC as the UK’s most magical festival, a fairy from 3 Wishes Fairy Fest reached out to
TheFestivals.
UK to tell us “as fairies, glitter is a part of fairyland, but we realise we needed to adapt too for the sake of our planet.”

As such, 3 Wishes Fairy Festival operates the following glitter policy:All stalls that sell glitter, must be certified eco glitter. We encourage all our visitors to only use eco glitter. Fairies are the guardians of nature, so as the founder of 3 Wishes Fairy Festival it is our duty to do the same in human land! We also encourage people to take away their recycling, and our caterers only use biodegradable cups and plates etc.

Full list:

Over 60 festivals have signed the Association of Independent Festivals’ pledge to get #DrasticOnPlastic and ban all single-use plastics, including glitter, from their events by 2021. The full list of AIF members taking part is below:

The ‘AIF thing’ these festivals have signed up to will make them 100% free of single-use plastics by 2021, as stated in the final paragraph before the first list begins. This explicitly includes traditional plastic glitter, with only biodegradable glitter, if that, allowed to be sold on site.

Hi! We run a festival stall called The Glitterati Party and we think this is a great move, and a long time coming! Like a lot of other festival businesses we’re moving over to biodegradable this year, unfortunately there is a huge price difference and we sincerely hope festival goers will understand this when coming to get glittered. We’re also wondering how festival goers bringing their own non-bio glitter will be managed? Will they be searched? 🤔 BUT our main concern is all the crap that festival goers leave behind because they can’t be bothered to carry it home . . . Tents, food, rubbish, clothing??? Surely if we’re doing our part, the public should be doing theirs? As traders we also incur fines if we leave ANYTHING behind in our pitch (which we never do!) so are festival goers going to be fined now too? The best solution has to be making EVERYONE attending festivals to take responsibility and respect the environment, and ‘leave no trace’. Thank you for reading our comment ✨🌿

As an electrical engineer who has done many electrical installations at festivals, let me set one thing straight, Cable ties will never, ever be banned, neither legally or lawefully (know the difference!). Whilst they are single use, rest assured that as professionals we clear our mess up afterwards.

By all means ban the use of plastic cups etc, as you can use alternatives, use paper bags instead of plastic. But dont interfere with the work ethics of us engineers as we can over-rule environmental decisions without warning!